1 Corinthians 12, "You are the Body of Christ"
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
I hope you don’t spend much time on the internet, but if you search on Yahoo for, “Why is the church so”, you get:
And if you try, “Why are Christians so”, you get:
Our culture perceives the church as useless and divided. Is that true? If it is, how does revival happen? If it isn’t, can we grow in our gospel ministry and in unity? And maybe more importantly, what part do you play in gospel ministry and in maintaining unity?
In our text today, we will see that Awareness of how God uses our differences makes us profitable to Him and united in mutual care. But let’s start by asking a basic question. What are we doing as a church, and why?
Jesus gave us our mission. It is to love God with all we are and have, to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to make disciples of Jesus, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything Jesus commanded.
That implies a basic message that the church preaches, teaches, and should be demonstrating in our actions. That basic message is “Jesus is Lord”. There’s a lot wrapped up in that. But Jesus came preaching a message, which was,
and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
The good news Jesus preached was a political revolution to restore the true king. God created this world as a temple to His glory, and He has all authority in heaven and earth. He created human beings as His image in this world to glorify Him and share in His authority, His rule and reign in this world. We were to care for His creation. Human beings, from the beginning, disobey and rebel, in other words, sin against God. But the good news Jesus was proclaiming is that Jesus Himself was restarting the world and reestablishing God’s rule and reign in a human being, who would fully obey God the Father in everything, even to death on a cross for sin, and resurrection over the power of sin and death, and for all who believe in Him, follow Him, and obey Him, God restores those people to His kingdom rule and reign also.
In one sermon, Jesus summarized His mission by describing the restored Kingdom of God looks like this,
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
God rules His kingdom through justice, righteousness, faithfulness, and steadfast lovingkindness. It always looks like care for the poor, children, widows, orphans, immigrants, handicapped, and the outcast. So, Jesus’ kingdom ministry was not just preaching the message of new life, but demonstrating it through healing, casting out demons, and being present to the hurting.
That’s half of the gospel. The second half is that Jesus has been crucified for our sin and risen again for our justification. Because of His obedience, God the Father has granted Him all authority in heaven and on earth to forgive sins and give eternal life. One day He returns to fully reunite heaven and earth.
But in the meantime, He has made His followers to be His body here on earth to carry out His mission. We are an occupying agents for good. We are His hands and feet. If you are a believer in Jesus, you are included in His body. You have a unique part to play in the life of the church, and in the mission of Jesus, to proclaim and demonstrate the gospel, which I summarize sometimes by saying that God is overcoming evil and establishing His rule and reign in and through Jesus Christ.
But you could summarize that whole gospel in a much simpler phrase, “Jesus is Lord”. This is a message to the world, but also a pledge of allegiance. For the first Christians, the Roman empire demanded your pledge of allegiance by saying, “Caesar is Lord”. Today, we have other pledges nations use, but from the first century, if you are a believer in Jesus, you have a new, and higher allegiance. That’s where 1 Corinthians 12 begins.
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans you were led astray to mute idols, however you were led. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.
Wherever your allegiance was before, it is now to Jesus. He is the new center of your life.
Now, what we call the “book of First Corinthians” is nothing more than a letter written by the Apostle Paul to the church in the city of Corinth, in Greece. Much of the letter consists of Paul answering questions the church in Corinth had asked him in their own letter, which has been lost. One of their questions had something to do with “spiritual things”, which he is answering here. The English translations add the word “gifts” for consistency’s sake. But Paul’s words are more general, “the things of the spirit”.
Paul wants the church to have spiritual awareness. That’s kind of vague these days. In our culture, it could mean anything from self-discovery, to meditation, to religion, to mindfulness. But Paul narrows spiritual awareness to awareness of the fact that God the Holy Spirit is empowering every member of the church to proclaim Jesus as Lord in all kinds of ways.
These days everyone is about diversity and discovering your unique identity. Ironically, the end result has been counter-productive to say the least. Everyone ends up looking and talking exactly the same. Because the world does not understand where diversity comes from, what it’s for, or how to achieve real unity that celebrates diversity but also works together toward the common good.
Paul says all of our diversity comes from God.
In verse 4,
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit;
Paul says there are different gifts, but they are all given by the same Spirit.
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord;
In verse 5, he says we all have different ways that we serve others, but we all serve the same Lord. And in verse 6,
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone.
he says we all have different activities we’re involved in, or different works that we do, but really it’s all God working in us.
Diversity: gifts, ways we serve, activities/works
Unity: same Spirit, same Lord, same God
God is Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, three persons in one being. God is community, diverse unity in common good purpose. So, when God restores human beings to His kingdom purpose, that diverse unity in common purpose for good is reflected in that community.
The Corinthian church was all about diversity. But instead of using it to advance the good news that Jesus is Lord in lots of ways, they had divided into group identities. Some followed Paul, some followed Peter, some followed Apollos, and some followed Jesus. Paul scolded them
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
The apostles were nothing but members of the body of Christ. Christ is everything.
Now, when they want to know about “spiritual things”, Paul will celebrate their diversity, but the main point is that all this diversity was a manifestation of the Spirit of the Triune God in them for “the common good”.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
The word translated “common good” is actually one word that means “profitable”. God has designed the church to be profitable. For what? For His purpose, His mission, His kingdom. He pours out the Spirit into every believer in Jesus in lots of different manifestations so that we will all profit His agenda, His purpose, to spread His kingdom on earth as the united body of Jesus.
He gives each of us different gifts. Those gifts lead us to serve others in Jesus’ name in different ways. And we will all do different good works. And as we look back at it all, we see that it was all God working through us.
So, Paul wants us to have spiritual awareness about what God is doing among us. God has given you, me, each of us different spiritual gifts to be used to serve others so that they will know Jesus is Lord, and this can happen through lots of different activities. And when we grow in awareness of His work in one another, we minister the gospel more effectively, we are more “profitable”.
When Paul goes through his list of examples, he says at the end,
All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
Which leads to his conclusion in the last twenty verses, which we can summarize to say, the way you use your unique mix of gift and ways you serve and works you do matters. He uses the illustration of the body to explain how our differences are used by God to accomplish the purposes of Jesus in unity. We are diverse, but we also need one another. Jesus does not accomplish His purpose through lone ranger Christians. They are like a disembodied limb.
Not only that but if we are the body of Jesus, and we think about who Jesus is, then the members of His body that are weaker, and less honorable, and less presentable, receive greater care. He actually says our weaker members are indispensable. We could spend all day talking about that. But think about how the church would function differently if we saw people this way. The strong Christians can come and go, but our weaker members are indispensable.
Paul summarizes all of this by telling us why it works.
1 Corinthians 12:24–25 (ESV)
But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.
This is our unity in mutual care. All of our diversity in the ways God has made us and given each of us a unique identity is good. In fact, God uses that to get His work done in our world. His work is to build His kingdom through Jesus as Lord. But our diversity is not an end in itself. It is a gift from God so that we will care for one another in unity.
Here are our takeaways:
Your life is not yours.
1 Corinthians 12:11 (ESV)
All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.
1 Corinthians 12:13 (ESV)
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
1. Your life is not yours.
2. Your life isn’t about you.
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.
1. Your life is not yours.
2. Your life isn’t about you.
3. We have unity, we don’t have to create it.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
1. Your life is not yours.
2. Your life isn’t about you.
3. We have unity, we don’t have to create it.
4. You belong. (14-18)
But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
1. Your life is not yours.
2. Your life isn’t about you.
3. We have unity, we don’t have to create it.
4. You belong.
5. We need everyone.
The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”
6. Our life together is from, for, and in Jesus Christ.
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
We could teach on the “spiritual gifts” by breaking down what each of them is and does. We could teach a seminar with assessments that help you understand yourself better. But none of that makes you profitable to God unless you are actually caring for someone else in the body of Christ so that you, together, can serve someone else in Jesus’ name. We learn by doing.
Who am I connected to in the body of Christ? How can I be present to them this week?
Where am I using my unique gifts and ways of serving to do good work in the power of God to proclaim and demonstrate that Jesus is Lord?